In my best Julia Roberts voice (a la “Notting Hill”):
I’m just a [Screenwriter], asking [literally anybody in the industry] for an [opportunity].
Howdy! Does anyone say “howdy” anymore? My name’s Joey and I’m a writer from Harlem, New York. I’m an NYU grad in Media, Culture, and Communications (whatever that means, right?), working a full time job in marketing sales while trying to make a SHARP left into a career in writing for the screen. Big screen. Small screen. Any sized screen.
My bio? Well, we’ll start with an icebreaker, as everyone loves so much. Let’s paint a scenario in which you ask me…I don’t know…my superpower?
Empathy is my superpower.
Okay, so that may have seemed a bit self-righteous, but hear me out.
Since childhood, I’ve always been a bit of a black sheep…no, a black unicorn. Born of a mother with blonde hair and blue eyes, growing up biracial with no connection to my father and his family resulted in an internalized sense of placelessness; a perpetual sense of imposter syndrome no matter what circle I found myself in. Being hella gay on top of that certainly didn’t help in my search for belonging. But in what has been a life-long endeavor to find a community and develop a firm grasp on my own identity, I’ve come to realize that that very intersectionality is what enables me to understand, to share, and with hope, to elevate the voices and narratives of the many marginalized communities that I represent. You see, it wasn’t so much that I didn’t know where I belonged, but rather that society burdens us with the task of choosing at all. Empathy is my superpower. My weapon of choice? A pen (Final Draft). And the enemy…fear.
At a moment in time where it seems as if the world itself has gone aflame, a news cycle bludgeoning us over the head with images of mankind holding a torch to its own feet, the stories we tell strengthen the truth that Maya Angelou so eloquently captured: We are more alike…than unalike. And while I don’t believe hate to be a natural human response, fear certainly is. It is no doubt that we fear what we do not know, and from my perspective as a black unicorn, there is a severe lacking in understanding as a society. Storytelling, in my opinion, can be one of the most effective ways to inspire empathy and a remedy for those with the inability to see the humanity in others unlike themselves. Through responsible and nuanced storytelling in a medium capable of touching every mind, my aim is to carve out a space in entertainment for the diverse voices of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color, and while representation certainly matters, I believe further that the kind of representation matters even more. It has been said that you cannot become what you cannot see, and I want to write the stories that birth dreams, an understanding that someone with melanin in their skin or fruit in their cake can take up any space they might so choose.
So while this may seem like a heavy answer to the ice-breaker that literally nobody asked for, as a storyteller it is my burden to prove Angelou right. Empathy is my superpower. My weapon of choice? A pen (Final Draft).
What a lovely, and well-thought-out introduction, Joey Johnsen! Welcome to the community! Always good to meet another East-coaster (although I'm from the DC area originally, but I have plenty of friends in NYC). Congratulations on graduating from NYU! That's amazing!
That's also an amazing superpower to have, although a painful one. I was born an empath, and while there is no manual for being one, it helps that I'm a SciFi geek. #AllINeedtoKnowILearnedfromDeannaTroy LOL ;-) My mother figured it out when I was three - I was watching a scene on TV of a funeral. I had never been to one, I didn't see the scene before it, so I didn't know the person had died, nor did I have any exposure to death before it, yet when I saw so many people gathered and crying, I began to cry.
Fast forward, and I'm balanced between martial arts and theatre in high school. I did professional theatre straight out of high school, but it didn't pay well at all, so if I wanted to pay my way through school (which I had to), then I was going to have to find a better paying gig. So, I used my martial arts knowledge to become a massage therapist. It's an incredible application for one's empathy, but the industry is not built to protect and sustain therapists. But it paid my way through film school and I'm grateful for it. I used to tell me clients - my two great loves have always been martial arts and theatre, they just evolved into massage and film.
My superpower? Interpretation. As a massage therapist, I can help laymen understand complex anatomical or physiological concepts, along with how to employ it to their benefit. As a creative producer, I can help producers understand what a writer needs and is attempting to convey while helping writers to get out of their heads. It sounds like education, but it's more like empowerment. At the end of the day, I suppose I am the "Champion" my Myers Briggs type proclaims (ENFP). I, too, love to lift others up! Ask me about when I taught film and television production to teenagers #ItsaLongStory
You may have already discovered the Screenwriting Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/screenwriting), but definitely check out the Acting Lounge (https://www.stage32.com/lounge/acting) for insight into characters, dialogue, and even when you want to generate interest in a virtual table read! Also, I think you'd really dig the Writer's Room - be sure to email Jason Mirch, our Director of Script Services, to get your first month free: J.Mirch@stage32.com Especially since we now offer Open Writing Assignments - just the best new opportunity!